End of the World

05 Mar 2009

Yesterday I spent a good part of the day making balloons at a housing fair. This was one of those great ideas that universities have where they cram a large number of competitors into a single hall and hope that students stop by. This fair is one that we do every year and I have to say that this year was by far the worst year I have participated in.

Last year we went through three bags of giveaways and this year we barely made it through one. I think that a lot of this was caused by the fact that there where fewer students coming through and that our table was located off of the main row of tables. Because of this I was asked to make balloon animals to try and attract people to our booth.

As usual I had a really good time making balloons. I am pretty sure that the ideal group for me to make balloons for is college students. Working with college students allows me to make jokes that I normally wouldn’t be able to get away with. My favorite type of balloon sculpturing is when I get to make balloons while using my own brand of smart ass humor to keep the crowd going.

The best way to describe it is stand up balloon art. I think that this method of balloons is more fun to watch because it is less of a: What do you want? Here you go! Next!, which seems to be what a lot of balloon artists do when hired to make balloons. I like to think that when I am hired to do an event I am hired to entertain and, as a secondary activity, make balloons.

One thing that was great about making balloons for college kids is that they are still into having fun and they allow themselves to be entertained. So often when I have made balloons for older non-college aged crowds I find that they consider themselves above balloon animals and they are pretty sure that balloon animals are stupid. Well I got news for you non-college crowd: Balloon animals are AWESOME!!!!

The funny thing about making balloons for work is that the people that I work with have an idea in their heads about how I act. They all think that I am a little bit of a hard-ass and not very much fun. When I bust out the balloons you can tell that they don’t quite know how to act. Should they laugh? Should they ignore it? Should they continue to work? I love watching the conflict as it goes though their heads.

I hope that if you are part of that non-college demographic that you will allow yourself to enjoy balloon art next time you encounter it. The balloon art is fun and if you encounter the right artist you will have a good time.